Sunday, August 1, 2010

Spring Turkey 2010...... Finally!!

Well, after Chad has threatened me multiple times, I'm starting to play catch up. We've got a lot to share with you all and since my job had me out of town for quite some time, here it is now, better late than never. Here's the first post of a few to follow. This was our AZ spring turkey hunt. Our tags were a long time coming and we were sure pumped to get back after the birds. Unfortunatley, things started out tough as the winter really put a hurtin on the birds this year, as well as the drinkers. I don't know for sure if its the actual snow load that hurts them more, or the predators having easier picking, but one things for sure, they took a beating. Once we honed in on the activity things really picked up. We had many exciting encounters and the birds got fired up for a bit. On the stand in which Joe took his bird, we called in an entire flock with 5 screaming hot gobblers with 7 very talkative hens. Things got wild as they started charging the decoys. That stand was followed by another in which we had 2 gobblers tripping over each other trying to be the first bird in. Although we had lots of fun, the highlight for me was being able to call in a very, very vocal tom to within 15 yards of my dad. While his grandson and I got to watch the whole thing unfold, I wasn't sure who's eyes were wider; my nephew's while we listened to the gobbler then watch him meet his maker, my dad's as the gobbler came strutting in, or the gobbler's as he finally realized that he'd been had. Once again I had my entire family out and we got to enjoy the beautiful weather. It's been very important to us to keep our kids and our nephews involved in the outdoors. Chad worked his magic as well by toppling over a thunder chicken. I've put toget a quick video to share some of our photos. Enjoy and there is more to come as I catch up.